“Failed His Country Twice”: Luka Doncic Draws Harsh Response from Fans After Giannis Antetokounmpo and Co.’s Win

The highly anticipated matchup between Luka Doncic and Giannis Antetokounmpo in the FIBA Olympic qualifying tournament ended up in a major disappointment for the Mavs star. Slovenia was thrashed by the Greek side 96-68 in a lopsided affair. With this loss, Luka’s team has been eliminated from the qualifying race and they won’t be participating in the Paris Olympics. Following the loss, fans on the internet unleashed harsh criticism toward Luka for failing to get his country into the next round.

Fans were expecting a great showdown between the two nations and their premier NBA superstar spearheads. However, the game never really took off from the Slovenian side. At one point, Giannis’ squad was up by 31 points. While this was happening, Luka was once again struggling with his knee issue, which many believe was the root cause of the Mavs crashing out of the NBA Finals.

In a winning cause, Giannis scored 13 points and had four rebounds. Luka, on the other hand, struggled throughout the game and had to be subbed out with 4:19 left on the clock. He ended his game with 21 points, shooting 50% from the field. However,, Luka also had 10 turnovers in the game.

A disaster like this can’t go unpunished on the internet and the fans proved just that. One fan stated that it’s not just another loss that Slovenia will have on the record sheet, it’s more about Luka failing his country once again. He posted, “Failed his country twice in less than 3 weeks…”

This is Luka’s second major loss in less than a month. First, he lost the NBA Finals at the hands of the Boston Celtics, and now Giannis got the better of him on national duty. According to a fan, this begs the question whether this is the beginning of the “Luka downfall.”

While most fans were pretty harsh with their responses, there was one fan who dubbed this loss as a planned move. He claimed that “Luka self sabotage the team so he can enjoy his off season.”

It’ll be unfair to even think that a competitor like Luka would seek any sort of comfort in losing a game, that too, on such a huge platform. Regardless, the point stands, Luka will get to rest and reset after having played 106 games in the last 12 months.